John wrote to show that Christ was
the Messiah, the Divine Son of God.

Jesus
said to his disciples: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And
I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you
always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither
sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and
will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In
a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I
live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my
Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and
observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved
by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him."

Several
years ago a man who entered the Church explained the reason for his conversion.
He entered because of the election of Pope Benedict XVI. It was not the
he, like so many others, already knew of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the eminent
theologian who became pope. In fact, he knew nothing about Cardinal
Ratzinger. His conversion was much simpler. It was, he explained,
simply a desire to share the joy in having a father. He saw the joy of
Catholics in having a pope - a "papa" - a spiritual father. He heard the
cry "Habemus paparm!" "We have a father!" He wanted to share
that joy.

That
convert's instincts were well placed. The election of a pope displays the
joy in having a father in an extraordinary way. But it touches on the
larger reality of the Church as the household of God - where strangers and
sojourners are formed into a family. (cf. Eph 2:19) Our Lord promised this
to His followers: "I will not leave you orphans." (Jn 14:18) He is
referring to the Holy Spirit. As His words indicate, the gift of the Holy
Spirit is more than a general kind of presence imparting a vague sort of
holiness. The Holy Spirit makes us a certain kind of people in relation to
God and one another.

First,
in relation to God we become children. We should take Our Lord at His word.
When He says He will not leave us orphans, He does not intend that as just a
figure of speech. He means that He will, by His gift of the Spirit, bring
us into a family. He does this because He Himself is the eternal Son of
the Father and His gift of the Spirit gives us a participation in His own
sonship. We are children in fact and not just by analogy. Having
heard these words of Our Lord, St. John exhorted his disciples in like manner:
"See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children
of God. Yet so we are." (1 Jn 3:1)

This
sonship has implications for our relationship with the Church. The Holy
Spirit's regenerative power makes us children of the Church. St. Cyprian
(and other Church fathers) said, "He cannot have God for his father, who has not
the Church for his mother." Indeed, this is how we ought to view the
Church - not as an institution or bureaucracy (although, alas, She has those
elements) - but as our Mother, who has brought us to birth in Christ and
nourishes us with His body and blood.

Within
the Church, furthermore, we are brothers and sisters. Indeed, familial
terms suffuse the whole language of Catholic liturgy, devotions and traditions:
father, mother, brother, sister, etc. These are more than just
expressions. They express a profound reality - that we who by sin were
separated from God and one another have been made one with Him. . . and with one
another. And our union is that of a family, sharing a common life, a
common purpose and most of all a common Father.

Finally,
as we approach the end of May, we should recall another important effect of Our
Lord's words. In the order of grace we are made children of Mary.
And again, this is not an analogy. Because he has brought us into His own
sonship, we can also call Mary our mother. Indeed, in a certain sense His
words, "I will not leave you orphans," can perhaps be seen as fulfilled with His
words from the cross: "Behold, your mother." (Jn 19:27)